No Worker Left Behind

In recent years, a growing chorus of academics and policymakers has been sounding the alarm about technological disruption of the labor market. Millions of jobs could soon be performed by machines, and that means millions of workers will need to be furnished with the skills to pursue new forms of work.

BERKELEY – A week rarely goes by without a new dystopian prediction about technologically driven mass unemployment. As artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic technologies advance faster than even their own developers expected, studies are finding that many of the tasks and occupations that employ people can already be automated.

Estimates of the share of automatable employment vary widely, from 14% of all jobs in OECD countries to nearly 50% of all jobs in the US. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 9-32% of the workforce in developed economies could be displaced within the next decade.

Across all countries, low-skilled occupations that require less formal education will be the most susceptible to automation, whereas jobs requiring professional training and/or tertiary education will be less threatened, at least for now. Either way, we urgently need to start furnishing workers with new skills to meet future labor-market demands.

Laura Tyson, a former chair of the US President's Council of Economic Advisers, is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior adviser at the Rock Creek Group.

Just a nightmare vision of the future. People constantly moving and "reskilling" based on the ever changing whims of capital. Jurisdictions "competing" with one another, begging for the wealthy to bestow capital upon them.

What have capital owners done to deserve such power and deference? They don't "do" anything. They are just the recipients of government enforced "rights" to a certain factor of production, like the feudal landlords back when agriculture was king.

Having two wealthy people who will never need to make sure their "skills being supplied meet current and future demand" telling everyone else that they are going to need to make sure they are constantly at peak usefulness for capital is really disgusting.

You know how we make sure "no workers are left behind by the driving force of automation"? By taking money from capital owners who are benefiting from automation and giving it to workers. Not forcing workers to jump through hoops and prove they are worthy of being bestowed some scraps. Just giving it to them. But it seems like capital will go down swinging, sending out their handmaidens to explain why what people who are being "left behind" need to do is keep the needs of capital in their hearts and minds, justifying why capital owners' power is integral to a "proper" economic system.

I see what you did there: "Ohana", or the world according to Disney.So now we have, "Annihilation: The Automation-Driven Unemployment Tsunami", rights aquired by Disney, produced and directed on PS, certified U - a story made totally anodyne and stripped of all nasty truths - because the audience we are aiming for is children, not the delicate ears of all those hundreds of millions adults who are going to lose their livelihoods, who must be protected from facing truths so downright nihilistic.

A word to the wise - if you want cantankerous old gits like me to not pour out bile, then stop with the syrup, please.

There is a vast element of unreality in all of this nonsense. Shocking as it may seem, 50% of the population is below average. Take a look at dropout rate in the USA (around 25%). Add in the kids who "graduate" with negligible skills (around 1/3rd of the "graduates"). The truth of the matter is that roughly 50% of young adults (and older adults) are unskilled labor. Retraining isn't going to change that. The real solutions are trade reform (expanding exports, reducing imports) and immigration restriction (keeping low-skill workers out of the USA).

No worker left behind? LOL! More like most workers left behind. As a man whose been through it I can honestly tell you 1: If they pay for retraining and it's a big if Usually you pay for it out of pocket or by student loans. 2: Even if they pay. you have the problem of what to live or support your family on. Unemployment doesn't go that far or last that long. 3. And trust me for this. Given a choice between a 22 year old with fresh training or a 40 some odd year old with fresh training Employers hire the 22 year old every time.

I've heard about these "Initiatives" all my working life but they never add up to anything beyond "See how virtuous we are!" But for some reason the funding always dries up. As anyone who looks up the statistics including the author knows. Trade adjustment assistance is referred to has burial insurance for good reason.

Agreed, there is age discrimination in business, particularly in Silicon Valley tech. To be fair (and in my perception) older generations grew up believing that the skills they learned in their youth would carry them for a lifetime. Those days are over, and all workers need to continue to gain and refine skills for their entire career. I acknowledge that your appear jaded over the inconsistent support of these programs, and I don't blame you. Having said that, if we don't champion these programs and show a need, nothing will change. As an employer neck deep in this, I can tell you it is a financial struggle to push these initiatives forward on the industry side. I believe however that persistence will pay off. Perhaps you will join us in pushing and supporting these types of programs?

What I am jaded I suppose is having to take out student loans I have little hope of paying back on wages I can make starting at the bottom of ladder in my late 40's. I will also say champion them or not. The only retraining that is going to happen is the retraining that the workers can borrow the money for. The winners don't care and since they effectively own the government change isn't going to happen.

Your article is spot on. I own a technology consulting company on the edge of Silicon Valley where it is very difficult to find and keep talent. We've taken on the challenge of establishing a High Tech Apprenticeship Program, one of the few employers willing to take the plunge. The work is incredibly rewarding, yet difficult to build and to scale without outside funding, particularly as a for-profit company that lacks access to traditionally non-profit funding. While I believe industry should take a pro-active role in developing these types of programs, it's not surprising that today industry is not particularly motivated. New America has a great research paper called "Connecting Apprenticeship and Higher Education" for download on their website, it's worth a read.

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